


Hope

by 4ever_Rewritten



Category: Deadpool (Movieverse)
Genre: And at the same time felt like Cable's wife was a blank canvas, Author wanted a good Reader/Cable story, F/M, Multi, Takes place before Deadpool 2, as usual, late to the party, no one else from the movies are there yet?, so like, so....
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-10 03:59:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20128993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4ever_Rewritten/pseuds/4ever_Rewritten
Summary: Several decades in the future, the world is a cliche dystopian world with a bleak future. You’re just trying to survive, and he has a savior-complex . If anything it would be a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of thing, right?





	Hope

The surrounding buildings had been reduced to rubble. Cars were overturned and either on fire or were smoking burned out metal hulls. Gunfire roared in the near distance followed by booms of missiles or mutant powers pitted against each other. Smoke hung heavy in the air, even in the shell of the ruined building that had been converted into a triage. 

It was your first time you were so close to the front lines. Up until recently, you were in a group that ran from such scenes. Hid from the world and stood behind the saying that it was best to flee and fight another day. But then you had met Panacea, or rather the older mutant had found you. She was the only one with power similar to your own, and she convinced you that you needed to be doing something more than just patching up scrapes and the odd infection. 

She didn’t care that you hadn’t received any sort of formal training. Not when you could heal gunshot wounds within a few minutes with just your touch. It was more important to have you out on the field, saving lives. So here you were, in the thick of it. There was no time to be nervous or hesitant, not with dozens of wounded soldiers lying on the cold concrete or one of the few cots. You bounced from one to another, using your powers to stabilize them before leaving them to the other medics to patch up. 

It was wearing you out. You hadn’t used your abilities like this before. Sure you’ve healed a few people before, but you’ve lost count how many people you’ve seen just within the last few hours. You forgot the last time you had a drink of water, and you knew it had been at least ten hours since you ate your ration bar for breakfast. 

All you wanted to do was take a thirty minute break, eat and drink and maybe rest your eyes for a few minutes. 

But Panacea was shouting your name once more as soon as you even thought you could take a moment to breathe. The greying woman was elbows-deep into someone’s stomach. She nodded to where two people were helping a third man limp in. The first thing you noticed was the thick metallic cables making up his left arm, followed closely by the blood-soaked tourniquet around his thigh. 

You reached them just as they found an empty cot and eased your new patient down. Whatever created the hole in his leg had left a wound large enough and deep enough you could almost fit your hand inside. But before you could place your hands anywhere near him, the man’s eyes open, one dark and the other flaring red. “Who the fuck are you and where’s Pan?”

“I’m an angel sent from heaven, here to kiss your boo-boo and make it better,” you answered dryly, always one to fall back to sarcasm in tense moments. “Unless you want to bleed to death while waiting for Boss to get her hands out of someone’s intestines.”

There was a short moment as your gaze locked with his in a challenge. You had met more than a few who scoffed because of how young you were, and probably knew that just a few days ago your life consisted of nothing like this. 

Finally he rolled his eyes, which you took as permission. Or at least as much as you were going to get. You placed a hand over the jagged hole before pulling the tourniquet apart with the other. Blood came pouring out as soon the pressure was removed, covering your hand and hiding its glow as your powers worked their magic. 

Of course, your powers did nothing to dull the pain of tissues and nerves suddenly growing back. His metal hand clenched as he hissed and cursed, and you dearly hoped he wasn’t going clock you like a few patients already had, because you were sure with muscles like that he would knock you out with just one hit. 

He didn’t take a swing, and you just kept focusing on the warmth in your hands, letting it flow from your fingers to his body. After a good thirty minutes, the hole was nothing more than a pale scar on the thick muscular thigh and a headache pounding in your skull. You sank down to the floor next to the cot, exhausted and shaky, and allowed yourself a moment to take a few deep breaths before trying to get to your feet. 

Only to quickly become light headed and dizzy, your vision starting to dim. “Sit your ass down before you fall,” your patient grumbled as he pulled you down to sit beside him. 

“Sorry,” you muttered, leaning against him as you regained your bearings. You hadn’t even noticed him sitting up. Maybe you had pushed yourself a little too much, but a glance up showed more wounded coming in. More people needing your help. You didn’t have time for a break. 

But when you pushed yourself up, his hand grabbed the back of your tanktop and yanked you back down. “You look like shit.” he said, pulling something from the pack slung over his shoulder. 

“Says the man who had ground meat for a thigh,” you grumbled but accepted the meal bar he shoved into your hand without argument. It was dry, tasted like cardboard, but you were well used to it. You virtually knew nothing else.

“Pan told me her trainee was a smart ass. You must be her.”

“Like I tell her, better a smartass than a dumbass.” You grinned up at him, studying his chiseled face. He was a good bit older, but if anything that just added to the rugged looks. Thick muscles, except where patches of machinery peaked through his skin. You held out your hand as you offered your name.

His grip was strong, but what did you expect. “Cable.” 

○●○

The base was a bunker-like facility hidden beneath the streets of ruined New York. And it was by far one of the strongest safeholds you had seen in your life. Dozens, maybe even a hundred different families lived here or in surrounding buildings.

No. They did more than lived. They thrived. There were rooms full of crops, food wasn’t a rare commodity here. You actually ate meat that was something other than bony fish or a scraggly rat. _Fresh baked bread _was easily your new favorite thing in the world. Kids ran up and down hallways, playing games without a hint of fear. The soldiers had guns slung to their hips, but they talked and laughed and didn’t constantly have a hand on the trigger.

You actually had a room with a bed. Not some rolled blankets that you carried from site to site. A bed, a mattress with a pillow and a warm soft blanket. Sure, you shared the room with Panacea, but for you that was nothing. Not when she was helping to read the different medical texts, especially since your reading skills weren’t the best. You knew the basics, but some of the larger words and concepts were a challenge. But a challenge you enjoyed. 

“So what’s up with Cable’s arm?” you asked while idly flipping through an old textbook. Inside detailed the human anatomy and a bunch of terminology you didn’t understand. But you had happened upon an illustration of the muscles of the neck and shoulder, reminding you of the man. Apparently he was the head boss of the security division, and was both very busy and very respected. 

And the only one you had seen with such a prosthetic arm. There was more than a few missing a limb, but his was different. More intricate than most of the prosthesis you had seen. 

“Cable...has a very complicated past,” she answered from where she was working on something. You didn’t dare ask because she loved to get off topic and lecture. “Part of it includes being infected with a very strange virus that converts tissue into metal versions. It’s actually quite amazing,” she started, and you knew that tone of voice. That was her about ready to get on a tangent tone of voice. Time for a lecture, apparently. “Other than skin, every organic structure is still there. Nerves, blood vessels, even the lymph system! It’s just mechanized! And I know what your thinking: why does he have blood and lymph if he doesn’t have actual tissues to oxygenate? But the really neat thing is the non-organic tissue runs on both electrical and biological fuel. I’m not a hundred percent sure what role the lymph system plays, but…”

You had stopped paying attention halfway through, fear rising. “Wait. Virus?! I had my hand in his leg! Am I going to start turning?!” You looked at your hand, careful to inspect for any changes. 

Only to have Pan laugh at your panic. “No, you’re going to be fine. Surely you noticed no one else is quite like him. Oddly the virus doesn’t survive outside of Cable’s body. There were tests done a while back, and it’s almost as if the virus was programmed for him and him alone. Which is good for the rest of the population, but also raises the tricky question on how to treat it when we can’t isolate it. As soon as we remove a sample from him, the virus overcomes the sample and destroys it. We’re lucky if we’re quick enough to catch it mid-morphosis.”

“But we’ve worked on viruses. That’s what you said the chicken pox were, right? A virus? We healed it on that kid yesterday. Can’t we do the same with him?”

Pan’s smile died, and there was a sad look in her eyes. “Remember, viruses are a grey area. We can bolster the immune system with our powers against them, but only if the body is already producing antibodies, and Cable’s body doesn’t recognize it as a threat. Have you ever wondered what Cable’s power was?”

“Uhh,” you frowned, wondering about the sudden change in topic. “Super aim or something?” You remembered seeing his eye flash red when you first met him but you never seen or heard anything about his powers. 

You briefly wondered if it was just the power to look so handsome despite his age, and quickly shoved that thought to the side. 

“He’s a telepath, with some amazing telekinetic abilities. But for the most part, it’s used to keep the virus at bay. His telekinetic powers are literally holding every single virus in his body in check every single second of every single day. If he didn’t, it would consume him in mere hours.” 

Your stomach dropped at the revelation. You couldn’t imagine using your powers constantly every day and just the thought wore you out. You had seen many psychic mutants tire after using their powers for a few minutes to an hour, max. But continual use? 

No wonder he was so grouchy.


End file.
